PHILADELPHIA — It started like the ideal day for the first home game of a baseball season – not a cloud in the sky, a warm sun bringing a soothing bake to South Philadelphia, Domonic Brown and Erik Kratz going deep, Kyle Kendrick pitching with ease.

Then the sun started to fall, and the wind brought a chill to the air. It was blowing from the general direction of the Phillies’ bullpen. And no amount of air freshener could cover up the stench that was incoming.

It started to sour when Kendrick leaked oil in the fifth and sixth innings, then got rancid when Jeremy Horst, Chad Durbin and Raul Valdes combined to give up eight runs and 11 hits while getting the final 10 outs as the Phils dropped a 13-4 debacle to the Kansas City Royals at Citizens Bank Park Friday afternoon.

It’s tough to recall a game that started this swimmingly going so badly. The Phillies had four runs and nine hits after three innings ... and finished with four runs and nine hits. Kansas City finished the game with a 13-0 run – in a baseball game. There might not be a 13-0 run in any of the Final Four NCAA Tournament men’s basketball games.

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Kendrick got pulled by Charlie Manuel with two outs in the sixth inning and the Phils still up 4-2. The bases loaded after Kendrick was told to intentionally walk Billy Butler so Horst could come in to face Alex Gordon in a lefty-lefty matchup.

Perhaps he has a little Monday morning quarterbacking at his disposal, but Kendrick felt he could’ve fared a little better than the abomination to come.

“I guess he wanted the lefty-on-lefty,” Kendrick said of the pitching change, which followed a two-out double by Chris Getz that put runners on second and third. “I felt strong. I would’ve liked to have faced Butler there, but that was their decision.

“When Kratz came out we talked about what we wanted to throw at Butler, then we walked him ... I wouldn’t think any starter would say he wants to come out of the game. I’m not going to knock Charlie’s decision at all, but I wanted to stay in the game.

“We let one get away from us today.”

Horst gave it away to Gordon, who lined a bases-clearing triple to right-center to put the Royals ahead, 5-4. Horst went back to the hill in the seventh, and after a walk and a pair of singles again loaded the bases with no outs, Durbin was called in. Durbin got a fly out that plated a run, but gave a free pass to walk-challenged Jeff Francoeur to again load the sacks, and Getz greeted him with a liner to left that Brown tried to dive and catch, but instead played it into another three-run triple.

That essentially buried the Phillies, but just in case they had any dreams of a rally, Valdes created a Royal spill by beaching his pitches onto the opposing bats over the final two innings.

Through four games the Phillies’ bullpen has allowed 14 runs in 12 innings for a fat, 10.50 ERA. It brings back nightmares of Chad Qualls, Joe Savery and 2012’s bullpen nightmare in the first half of the season.

“If you could hear our internal dialogue,” Durbin said when asked if he could feel the anxiety of the fans in the filled ballpark, “it isn’t coming close to what we’re saying to ourselves when you’re trying to make a pitch and you don’t ... They let us know about the anxiety, and you either thrive on it or you don’t. But four games in I don’t think it’s that big a deal.

“It all starts with (Jonathan) Papelbon and (Mike) Adams, then trickles on down, and those guys are pretty darned good. Their track records are outstanding.”

At the plate the Phillies seemed destined to roll over the Royals, as nine of the first 14 batters to face Kansas City starter Wade Davis got hits, including solo home runs by Brown and Kratz. However, starting with former Phillie and winning pitcher Bruce Chen, the Royals got five near-perfect innings from their relievers, a walk by John Mayberry Jr. the lone blemish.

“The first four innings were good,” Manuel said. “The last five got ugly and out of hand. To open the season like that, I don’t like it and I don’t think anybody likes it. I don’t know what you’re going to do about it except come out tomorrow and play as hard as you can and try to get better every day.”

Kratz shook his head when asked about his first homer of the season, clearly feeling responsible for the unraveling of his battery mates.

“It’s a terrible outcome of the day today,” the catcher said. “It’s another example why, as a catcher, your offense doesn’t really mean anything. That’s one at-bat, and we need to do a lot better behind the plate today.”